I’ve been listening to some good on-line presentations and speeches lately and wanted to share them here. I also want to recommend again a podcast I mentioned in my last post: Inside Intercom. I called out their most recent episode – an interview with Laura Klein – but wanted to say that as I’ve started digging into the previous content as well and there are some wonderful interviews with compelling product leaders. With that said, let me talk about two other enjoyable and inspiring presentations I’ve heard this week.

First, you may have seen or heard this already but Abby Wambach made an amazing commencement address to the graduating class at Barnard College this spring (link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1532&v=wJe40l2waxs). The speech was incredible for its call to women (and others) to be strong leaders, to learn from failure, and to champion each other’s successes. It ends with a strong call for women to demand not just a seat at the table but the chance to lead as well as a call for women to bring their full and authentic selves to everything they do. If you haven’t listened to this I encourage you to do so.

Second, Spotify makes some fabulous presentations about the strength of their development culture and this one is no exception (link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GK1NDTWbkY&feature=youtu.be). If you work in a product development company or any firm with a desire to shape a strong culture of growth and innovation then I would suggest watching this brief presentation and digging into the other links you can find from Spotify about how they shape their development environment. This video also talks about the importance of learning from failure (one quote is, “if failure is punished then people will stop taking risks”) and building teams of people who support and encourage each other in pursuing a common vision.

There’s a lot of great content out there but I hope these 2 (or 3) recommendation can help point you to a few things worth your time. If you check these out and want to talk more about what you hear, feel free to hit me up on Twitter (@asbiv) or post responses here. None of these presenters will give you all the answers of course because in truth it’s not that simple.

(image attribution in the image)